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Alexander Corleone
Alexander Giancarlo (Alex) Corleone (born 9 November 1961) is an Italian-American born economist, politician and writer affiliated with the British Conservative Party. He is the thirteenth and current Member of Parliament for SHeffield Early Life Corleone was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 9 November, 1979, son of Carlo and Maria Corleone. When he was nine months old his parents were divorced, and Corleone was raised by his mother. His father, Carlo, was offered a position in London as a chief logistics consultant for Cliff Electronics in 1982, and has worked there since. Corleone lived a relatively rootless existence, moving multiple times, moving a dozen times before he turned ten years old. University In 1995, at age 15, Corleone graduated high school and moved to the United Kingdom with his father to continue his education, where he enrolled in the economics Bachelor's program at Oxford. He joined the Oxford rowing team as a coxswain, and soon developed a reputation as "brilliant but lazy." He aced tests and essays with little effort but often turned assignments in late, and preferred focusing on rowing practice, socialization, and chasing girls to his studies. Nevertheless he obtained very high marks, and graduated with a first degree in a scant two years, though not before attending an interview to determine whether he'd get a first or second degree. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in 1997, Corleone stayed in Oxford to complete his Master's. Around this time he became more involved in politics, participating in Michael Heseltine's reelection campaign. He became acquainted with numerous prominent Conservative party members, including his predecessor Boris Johnson, whom at the time had just failed an election bid in Clwyd South. Corleone later commented about the campaign, on an interview with the Times: "It was certainly a learning experience. Lord Heseltine was a force unto himself -- when he spoke one could not help but listen. And listen I did." In 1999, Corleone obtained a Master of Arts first degree in economics from Oxford, and migrated back to his home country in order to complete a PhD program in Behavioral Decision Research, which he did in a record-setting 18 months. When it was completed, Corleone returned to the UK, with the intention of making his career in his adopted country. Later he would comment "I never had any intentions of staying in America. Britain is my home, it's the only place I've ever truly felt stable... safe." In 2000, he applied for naturalisation and immigration officials were sufficiently impressed with him that he was approved for it. Early Political Career Corleone's political career began in 1997 while he was at Oxford, when he started frequenting Tory party meetings. After a chance meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine he was offered work in Heseltine's campaign. Heseltine commented in an interview to The Telegraph that he was duly impressed with Corleone's proposals, his fiery rhetoric, and his evident love of Britain. Heseltine offered Corleone a position as policy adviser to his office, which Corleone declined, citing his plans to pursue a Doctorate in the US. Heseltine then assured him thhan when he'd finished his studies he'd have a post waiting for him, and would personally recommend him for any post within the Conservative Party he desired. In 2002, impressed with the economic insights offered by Corleone in the odd newspaper articles he posted as well as his 2001 book Framing Armageddon: A story of the abandonment of sanity and common sense in policy, Iain Duncan Smith (then Leader of the Opposition) took Corleone on as a policy adviser, working under the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Columnist for The Telegraph In 2004, he began writing a weekly opinion column for The Telegraph, in which he commented on the state of the British economy and current affairs, as well as occasionally on other policy-related and non-policy-related concerns. He became unpopular in the most hardline Thatcherite circles of the Party for his harsh criticism of the Iron Lady's policies, which he blamed for the decline of Britain's industrial sector. By late 2005 the column was being published daily, which forced him to resign his post as an adviser to the Opposition. Heart Attack In January 2005 Corleone suffered a near-fatal heart attack, which confined him to a hospital bed for three weeks. He wrote a piece about it in his column, commenting that it had made him think; that he believed maybe he'd been trying to live life too fast and he "ran into a concrete divider along the way." Rumours abounded that the event had been caused by a cocaine overdose, but no conclusive evidence was ever found thereof, and two drug tests, administered to him by the shadow cabinet and The Telegraph, turned up negative. Member of Parliament In 2007, Boris Johnson resigned his seat as MP for Henley to focus fully on his 2008 campaign for the post of Mayor of London, leaving the post vacant. Corleone was selected by the Conservative Party leadership to stand elections in the district, because of his impressive record as an adviser and the political capital he had in the constituency as an Oxford champion rower. Corleone, widely considered a highly charismatic public speaker, focused mainly on grassroots campaigning and was a hit at rallies. His anglic nationalist rhetoric was very well-received as was his pro-industrial populism, deriding both the parasitic underclass and the evils of international capital while promising to do all within his power to restore Britain to its industrial greatness of yesteryear. While he also included praise for traditional values in his speeches, people received his traditionalist rhetoric with trepidation, criticisms often being levied at him that he wouldn't "walk the walk," having a reputation as an inveterate bachelor and a womanizer. Despite these reservations he carried the constituency, albeit with a mere 44% of the vote, an inordinately low polling result for a conservative in the constituency. Senior Secretary to the Treasury Whithin a week of becoming Member of Parliament, Corleone took a bold step forward and outlined a comprehensive plan for improving both the economy and the finances of the Government. Impressed with Corleone's ideas and their delivery, Prime Minister Halifax offered his personal compliments to the young MP, as well as a seat in his cabinet. Corleone gracefully accepted, and after a cabinet reshuffling on 27 October (25 days after Corleone took his seat in Parliament) was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Corleone participated in a Commons joint press conference regarding the 10 September terror attacks, in which he offered a heartfelt plea to both strike back at the very heart of the terrorists and carry on with life; which was generally well-received, but criticized by some as "overdramatic" and "overly intense." The hotshot junior Secretary quickly gained the attention of the press, making several media appearances. His favourite, by his own admission, was in Top Gear's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment (picture from the event appears above), in which he was given the opportunity to drive a Chevrolet Lacetti around the Top Gear test track. He posted a lap time of 1:46. Secretary of State for Business and Industry In 13 November 2007, Prime Minister Halifax named Corleone State Secretary for Business and Industry, the better to capitalise on the young prodigy's talents as an economic policymaker. Corleone encountered initial resistance from a vocal minority in the Cabinet against a number of his most controversial policies, but has nevertheless turned the Government around to most of them. He has proposed a revolutionary new idea for a Land Value Tax, as well as legislation thoroughly reforming union action, the pension system and consumer credit. Most recently, Corleone was very active in promoting the by-election campaign of Dawn Parry in Newport East, strongly targetting blue-collar workers and the youth. His charismatic presence and assurances that the Government stood behind Parry and her constituency provided a significant boost in the polls for the MP candidate, which, while not enough to win her the seat, did boost her polling results by a full seven points in comparison to the General Election -- just four shy of overtaking the Labour candidate. In 7 March, 2008, Corleone (a very vocal advocate for industrial recovery) enacted a comprehensive Manufacturing Stimulus Package aimed at giving a strong jolt to the stagnant British manufacturing sector. 2008 Election In early May 2008, Prime Minister William halifax, galvanised by the loss in Division of three very popular bills, dissolved Parliament and called early elections in an attempt to gain a majority. Corleone was very active in the campaign (particularly in the later stages of it), spreading a pro-worker message in rustbelt and promising that the Tories have left the Thatcher years behind; while simultaneously reminding them that Labour never did to anything on their behalf anyway. The campaign was successful, with Yorkshire (previously thought a Labour stronghold) reporting an eleven-seat gain in favour of the Conservatives. The campaign ended with a triumphant hold over power by the Conservatives, who now hold a three-seat absolute majority, and a six-seat de facto majority. After the election, Corleone held a very large party in celebration of the resounding Conservative victory, reportedly spending a substantial portion of his two-million-dollar net worth. During the formation of the new Cabinet, Corleone was offered the position of Deputy Prime Minister, which he gracefully accepted. Corleone has already begun work in his new year's agenda, proposing two key pieces of legislation for the Party. He has plans to work with the Education and Employment secretary on a proposal to overhaul the employment and education system to fit his new industrial policy. Economic Views Corleone catalogues himself as a producerist, a right-wing populist ideology which holds that "the productive members of society are being exploited by parasitic elements at both the top and bottom of the social and economic structure." He's described himself as a "refined" producerist, holding that a presence in the international markets is crucial and protectionism is oftentimes silly and unnecessary; and that big business is often more important to production than small enterprise. He advocates a poolicy of direct supply-side stimulation of capital investment, and favours untaxing all capital expenses everywhere and phasing out as many taxes as possible in favour of a land-value tax. Corleone has come under criticism from the left for deriding the role of British unions in the economic decline of Britain. In his column he once wrote: "if there's one thing I can sort of agree with ol' Maggie about, it's unions. Unions in Britain, like unions in the USA, are overly hostile, overly intransigent, and ultimately they're shooting their own workers in the foot. And they never got the message; while British industry got progressively worse and worse. They needed to be taken down." He nevertheless claims to support unions, so long as they're mindful of the importance of workplace productivity in worker benefits. Later in the same column he wrote, "German unions have the right idea. They sit on the management board whilst management members sit on the union board, and hash out intelligent solutions like civilized adults; as opposed to throwing a tantrum and going on strike like little kids who didn't get their favourite toy for Christmas." In another column he wrote, "beyond the economic role of unions (which I in most cases find at best very much wanting), there's the social role of unions. We would be remiss to forget man is not an economic animal, and often a sense of community, which unions certainly help foster, is crucial to the spiritual well-being of a person." Foreign Policy Views Corleone's been noted for an aggressive foreign stance, prompting his political opponents to bestow upon him the epithet of "chickenhawk." He believes Britain must be active in defending its interests abroad; and whenever it can actually afford to do so it should intervene to prevent "thuggish, crackpot dictators from preying upon the innocent." He's strongly come out in support of restoring pre-1911 powers to the House of the Lords and the monarch, and is a harsh critic of the democratic process. Corleone's foreign policy stance is also notably Anglophilic. Corleone is a staunch Eurosceptic, arguing that Britain should seek closer ties with the remainder of the Anglosphere and arguing that they're closer culturally and politically to the Anglo-Saxon diaspora in North America and Oceania than to continental Europe. He has frequently lambasted multiculturalism as a failure, once commenting in his column: "Don't get me wrong, a melting pot society can survive, thrive, and will be made all the more powerful for it... look at America for example. only a minority of the population are descended from the original settlers, yet they remain true to their Anglo-Saxon roots and have thrived for it. They're now the world's leading superpower. The problem is that if too many people are allowed in and allowed to keep their own culture then we'll have a disloyal, fractured and weak society not capable of wiping its arse properly. I welcome new immigrants to Britain... hell I am an immigrant, and I feel more attached to Mother Britannia than to my own homeland; but we must make it clear that we expect them to assimilate, and if they wish to stay they must assimilate. Britain is for Britons of all colours and shapes, but ultimately for Britons. "This experiment of multiculturalism that the increasingly politically correct establishment, of Britain and of all of Europe, is attempting, is a disaster. It is a failure, and it will never succeed. Humanity is tribal and ethnocentric in nature, and wherever two opposing cultures rub together either one obliterates the other, or they weaken each other to extinction. For this reason the (note: liberal) Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam found that multicultural societies suffer from a lack of social capital, and social cohesion. Really, I can't even begin to understand the rationale behind multiculturalism... it's essentially the advocation of undermining and basically destroying our culture, our traditions, in our own homeland! If we tried this nonsense in a third-world country we'd be accused of ethnic cleansing and condemned by the international community. So why is it okay when it's done to us? By our own leaders, no less?"